Evolving Expression

As we knew from the get-go, EnlightenEd would evolve with time and feedback.

What began as a project in the field of education seems to be moving further out there, away from the established system. From the beginning, we knew we were moving away from the mainstream; as it turns out, we’re moving away from “progressive” schooling methods, too.

We are through with school.

We used to work at school and teaching, but now we play at life and learning.

What began as the co-writing of a book turned into the co-creation of this community website and blog—and is ever shape-shifting into a bevy of curvaceous question marks. Who are our people? What is our message? How can we communicate our ideas most clearly and effectively?

We have gotten some great, mostly positive feedback from friends and readers, but… not much of it, overall.

It seems our people are busy: teachers (in mainstream or progressive schools) who are overwhelmed with duties and hardly have a chance to come up for air during the school year; parents who are working long hours and are often involved in multiple extracurricular activities; in short, human beings who want to be more mindful, inspired and happy but often find themselves unable to break the cycle of stress, exhaustion and frustration.

The cool part is, we have created this pretty little monster, therefore we make and break the rules as we go.

EnlightenEd has been, is and will be focused on learning.

Conscious learning.

We are slowly but surely exploring what that means. For now, we know it means lifelong, natural, passionate, compassionate learning, outside of the traditional schooling paradigm.

We are continuing to expand our library of resources. We have come to the realization that we are writers, and as such we share our words with readers. We have both, independently, decided to be less online and more mindful about the time and energy we put into our efforts, both online and off. We also have a new website in the works. (Stay tuned!)

For Kat, conscious learning means discovering more ways to feel whole, which these days includes spending more time outdoors and with loved ones, writing her personal story, gardening and moving at her own pace to her own rhythms.

We’re also dreaming of creating a new breed of learning centre. Por vida — for life. A space where community members can come and feel a sense of belonging as we share in a vision of lifelong, conscious learning. A facility for affordable, accessible workshops on everything from kids’ yoga to medicinal herb gardening to poetry writing to eco-building. Classes and clubs for humans of all ages to share in learning practical skills through group projects propelled by organic investigation and exploration. Long-term, we’re working on making this dream a reality with our first centre located at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.

What does conscious learning mean to you? How are you learning these days? What lesson(s) is life presenting presently?